Results 341-360 of 1,035,788 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Eoin Ó Broin OR speaker:John Brady OR speaker:James O'Connor)

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

John Brady: I have to state I am not asking Mr. Conlon not to. It is subject to the High Court, but I am sure that has been looked at. What exposure to the State is there if it does not honour this?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

John Brady: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

John Brady: The officials said the final bill is not in for the legal cases and the arbitration. There are two separate arbitrations there. Have we any costing at this stage from that process?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

John Brady: Okay. I will try to come back in, but this entire process, which has left the State at serious exposure, lacks transparency and due process. I think it is being driven by some connected people without any proper process or procedure and there are a lot of procedures for a lot of Departments about funding streams being made available when other science projects have been essentially left to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

John Brady: -----and not been given access to any State funding. They have been told there is no specific funding headings there for it, yet money was made available for this to the tune of in excess of €5 million from different Departments.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

James O'Connor: It was Labour and Fine Gael.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

James O'Connor: I thank the Chairperson. I welcome the OPW and other officials. It will be probably be no surprise to them I am raising the Midleton flood relief scheme and other projects under the OPW's remit. I will draw on something from a 2014 press release by Séamus Whelan to set my argument in motion here. A response the OPW gave to Cork county councillors in the East Cork Municipal District...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

James O'Connor: Mr. Conlon has not visited yet.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

James O'Connor: Was Mr. Conlon working in the OPW before that?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

James O'Connor: Okay. We will let him off on that one.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

James O'Connor: Before we go there, we need a little more detail. How can the OPW justify the fact that nine and a half years after the work got under way, a sod had not even been turned on the project? We need to know the reason. I am genuinely not trying to trip the OPW up. I just cannot understand how those comments could have been made to public representatives at municipal district level in 2014 but...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

James O'Connor: A decade.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

James O'Connor: With all due respect, Mr. Casey referred to the needs and aspirations of the local community but we have been waiting for a decade for a sod to be turned. The consequences of that are now evident from what happened during Storm Babette. It was not the first time Midleton flooded but it was far and away the worst flooding incident that has ever taken place there. I now fear we are going to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

James O'Connor: I asked about the Arterial Drainage Act. I imagine the Department of public expenditure is in the OPW's ear saying, from a penny-pinching point of view, that it cannot do this and that the OPW should ram the bill on to Cork County Council. Does Mr. Casey accept, given the extraordinarily high cost of this project, that that would be a crippling amount of money to expect a local authority to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

James O'Connor: In terms of the delivery, will the OPW foot the bill or will it pass it on to Cork County Council? That is the question I asked.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

James O'Connor: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

James O'Connor: I want to raise two other important issues. The first concerns communication and is addressed to Mr. Conlon. As an Oireachtas Member representing the constituency affected by Storm Babet, I am critical of the OPW's communications. We have been given no proper briefings. All information must be sought. Committees were put in place by the local authority. We have involvement by the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

James O'Connor: Perfect. That would be appreciated. The second issue I want to raise is more of an issue with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, to be honest, but it is all the same. I am very confused around why there is this system of tranches. Having tranche 1 and 2 schemes effectively means the OPW will not bother doing it until it can get a few bob off the Department of...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

James O'Connor: Before we move on to it, Mr. Conlon might expand on that point. The tranche 2 villages in question are obviously Mogeely and Castlemartyr and that section of river, and also the localised flooding because groundwater was an issue, and Rathcormac. Those settlements flooded as a consequence of Storm Babet. Is there a prioritisation system or any system whereby the OPW can go back to the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (13 Jun 2024)

James O'Connor: However, tranche 2 was the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform's idea - putting them into tranches to stagger them out so it does not have to pay for them-----